1904 (ca.), Odilon Redon, Vase of Flowers -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: By the end of the 1800s, pastel and oil had become Redon's preferred media. Maurice Denis recognized Redon's use of the formal tools of art to express emotional states of experience and saw certain affinities with the painters of the Nabi group. Redon was open to learning from these younger painters, and he began to share their tendencies for Japonism and interest in exploring decorative emphases and expressive uses of color. Along with portraits, mythological and literary subjects, and decorative works, floral still lifes such as this one became a focus of Redon's painting. Color became an additional means for the artist to explore experiences beyond the ordinary visible reality, and Redon explicitly associated his vibrant use of color with personal happiness. His other mainstays of this period are the Japanese-influenced style of brushwork and the overriding decorative treatment of the composition, which elevates the interest of this still life beyond the merely representational. Although the flowers in the vase retain an aspect of direct mimesis, their predominating colors obliterate the scene's natural perspective by abstracting what is probably the background's wallpaper motif into a flurry of petal-like brushstrokes.
1904 (ca.), Odilon Redon, Vase of Flowers -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: By the end of the 1800s, pastel and oil had become Redon's preferred media. Maurice Denis recognized Redon's use of the formal tools of art to express emotional states of experience and saw certain affinities with the painters of the Nabi group. Redon was open to learning from these younger painters, and he began to share their tendencies for Japonism and interest in exploring decorative emphases and expressive uses of color. Along with portraits, mythological and literary subjects, and decorative works, floral still lifes such as this one became a focus of Redon's painting. Color became an additional means for the artist to explore experiences beyond the ordinary visible reality, and Redon explicitly associated his vibrant use of color with personal happiness. His other mainstays of this period are the Japanese-influenced style of brushwork and the overriding decorative treatment of the composition, which elevates the interest of this still life beyond the merely representational. Although the flowers in the vase retain an aspect of direct mimesis, their predominating colors obliterate the scene's natural perspective by abstracting what is probably the background's wallpaper motif into a flurry of petal-like brushstrokes.